Duelist From the Dark
by Zelda Martial
Summary: For this duelist, who duels in the comfort of darkness, her loyalties are put to the test when she's hired to aquire the Millennium Items...


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Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-gi-oh!, though I'm so utterly obsessed with it right now, I wish I did! *cries*

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Author's Note: This is the re-write for my other fic 'Two Souls Become One'.

The streets of Domino City were dark as onyx as I crept silently through it's many streets looking for place for which I had been summoned. Since I could not find the place I was looking for, I settled down for the night in a damp and dark alley way, as I close my eyes to try and forget everything that has happened to me, whether it was good or bad. 

My mother had been thrown out on the street, when she was eighteen, when her parents had learned that I was conceived out of wedlock, but my mother had not the heart to tell them how it had happened. The week before, she had been walking home in the dark, for she was coming home from her night classes in school, and she was confronted by a group of guys clad in dark garb, so they were able to blend into the shadows. Before she realized what was happening to her, she had been dragged into the shadows, drugged and then raped by their leader. Several hours later, they had brought her back home and placed her secretly back within her room and disappeared, never to be seen by my mother again.

My mother had hid that day from her parents for several weeks until I became noticeably bigger inside my mothers womb. It was then that she was thrown out on the streets for something that had been completely out of her control. She had to fight everyday, not only for her own survival, but for mine as well, and when the day came that I was to be delivered into this world, she could fight no longer. My grandparents had gotten word that she had died giving birth to me and had taken me into their home, much against their will, having only taken me in because they were apparently my only living family. 

For seven years I remained under their horrendous care and one day, we went to the park and as I was on a ride for the first time alone by myself, they left me there. They hated me so much as to leave me to die out on the streets. However, I wasn't alone for very long. After no one returned to the park to claim me, I was taken to the orphanage where I met the man who would change the course of my life forever.

"Here," He had told me, "I want you to have this." He then handed me a deck of cards. As soon as I had the deck within my hand, I just stared at it, wondering what the cards were, but while I was doing that, Seto and his brother disappeared from my life forever.

Now I'm sixteen, but I didn't get to be even this old without major sacrifices on my part. Some would call it reckless foolishness, but it's what I had to do to survive; selling myself so that I could afford the costs of obtaining booster packs for my deck and the dueling fees for the competitions that were held in the mall. Somehow, I knew that was where my destiny lied.

I knew that I had other choices that I could have made, other paths that I could have taken, but at my age, living on the streets with not many prospects for your future, you did what you had to do. I feel worthless, but when I purchase dueling cards, or partake in a competition, my senses are inflared with passion for the game. No one could have known what I had been through to get to that duel.

However, after one local tournament duel that I won, here in Domino City, a strange woman came up to me and handed me an ornate clay box with hieroglyphics upon it. I opened it to find a long necklace with a pendant attached to it. The woman said it was called the Millennium Symbol; an ancient Egyptian artifact with untold powers and abilities that vastly surpassed it's seven counterparts. I took the gift and put on. If I would have known how greatly that gift would effect my future, I probably would have thought twice before accepting it.

However, since that day, dueling has never been the same. Every time I challenged a duelist in tournament play, I could feel a presence awaken within me. It wasn't until I had made it to the World Duel Monsters Tournament finals that I began to realize the extent of the power within my necklace. 

Previously, during the duels leading up to the finals, the cards in my deck began changing. I didn't know how, but when ever I needed a particular card, it just came to me, even though the majority of the cards weren't even in my deck to begin with. As I made my way through each duel, I became aware of six particular cards that were extremely powerful. They were known as the Millennium Item cards.

When I began approaching the dueling station to duel against my opponent for the finals, I had be thumbing through my deck one final time and came across the cards again and began reading the magic effects they had. The first five that I read just said that they needed the other five cards in order to be activated with a sixth, and the what the sixth card said caused me to freeze in my steps. It said that if this card was activated with the other five cards, I would either be forced to literally destroy my opponent, or surrender the duel. After reading the six cards, I shuffled my deck several times before competing. I was the first one there, and had no idea who I was dueling against. And then he arrived.

I find it strange that I was dueling against the one man who gave my life a seemingly new beginning nine years ago, but as fate would have it, that is exactly who I was dueling. Since we last met, Seto Kaiba had made quite a name for himself, both in business and the dueling world. Somehow, I wasn't surprised that we would meet again under these circumstances.

As we dueled against each other, we each gave our absolute best; neither one of us backing down in the slightest. Even when he had summoned a Blue Eyes White Dragon, I had just the card in play to counter it. I had the duel nearly won, but then I drew the one card that would end the duel. By this point in the game, I had already drawn the five magic cards needed to summon the power, but somehow, I couldn't do it. I had no idea how strong it was the Millennium Item cards were, so instead of summoning it's awesome power to destroy Seto's last Blue Eyes White Dragon, I surrendered the duel, much to his surprise. He knew that I could have won the duel right then and there, so when I chose not to, he just had to know why.

Knowing that he didn't remember who I was, I told him that sometimes, a duel just isn't worth winning when the life of a duelist is at stake.

I knew that he still had many questions he wanted to ask me, but I didn't give him the time to do so. By the time I had finished answering his first question, I had already gotten up and left the arena, knowing that at some point down the road, we would meet again.

I haven't met him again yet, but I still feel strongly that we will at some point within the next year. Now, however, given my dueling status known throughout the world, I have been summoned to an elite underground dueling ring, where the ring leader wishes to hire out my dueling expertise. I have no idea where this ring is located, but I figure soon, they will find me when they need me.

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If you've enjoyed what you've read so far, please review J 

Zelda Martial~


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